Imagine you’re a roster-bubble player and you’re having a good practice and ready for your next rep when Patricia decides to get mad and makes everyone run, thereby cancelling one of your reps. How exactly does that help anyone? The usual way players are corrected is they get chewed out by their position coaches.

Even former Lions coaches Jim Schwartz, who thought he was the smartest man in the room, and Jim Caldwell, who knew he was the smartest man in the room, didn’t punish players with running very often during minicamp or training camp.

The running, on its own, won’t lose players for Patricia. But you have to assume if he’s using these tactics in front of reporters, he could be using others privately that are equally distasteful to players.

Detroit Lions running back Theo Riddick (right) and running back LeGarrette Blount (29) walk off the field after practice at the Lions Headquarters and Training Facility on Tuesday, June 5, 2018.
Raj Mehta, USA TODAY Sports

But this is a different era, with restricted practice time teams need to use judiciously. Patricia needs to find a way to prove his point more efficiently, or else he runs the risk of alienating players before the season starts.

More observations from minicamp.

I miss Jim Caldwell

OK, that’s a little extreme. But Papa Coach definitely made some reporters nostalgic for the “check the report” days after Patricia’s constant flow of non-answers this week became increasingly frustrating.

Lions head coach Jim Caldwell talks with the media during the first day of training camp July 28, 2016 at the practice facility in Allen Park.(Photo: Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press)

There will always be an information tug-o'-war between reporters and coaches. But the lengths to which Patricia went to avoid answering even simple questions like how veterans are adjusting to his coaching style was perplexing and frustrating.

The Lions are trying to remake themselves into a replica of the New England Patriots as a battened-down, tightly run organization. Every week it seems something, or someone, gets altered. It’s almost a laughably silly idea to think what works for Bill Belichick in Foxborough would work for anyone else in Allen Park.

QB battle

Matt Cassel is my leader in the clubhouse in the fight for the No. 2 quarterback with Jake Rudock. Cassel looked a little better than Rudock and took more second-team snaps. But it’s also clear that Patricia respects Cassel as an experienced veteran he trusts.

And that makes sense because if Matthew Stafford goes down, and Cassel or Rudock have to start or play significant minutes, wouldn’t you choose the guy who’s faced that situation before and still won 10 games and led his team to the playoffs?

But Stafford still looked miles ahead of both of his backups with his arm strength, touch and accuracy. Of course, that’s how he should look for what he’s getting paid and because he’s playing with the first-team offense.

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Monarrez writes for the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK